News
Media Statements
26 July 2007
South Island senior doctors add voice to concerns
In an unprecedented move, senior doctors around the country have been involved in stopwork meetings. It comes in the wake of an impasse having been reached in negotiations with District Health Boards for a new national collective agreement.
The first meetings involving
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Ian Powell says as with the other eight meetings held around the country, the two
“The message is very clear and consistent with doctors around the country calling for action now. We can not afford to wait any longer to try and reverse the trend of losing our doctors offshore. Unless something is done to address the retention and recruitment of our senior doctors there will be a big question mark hanging over patient safety.”
He says to illustrate the depth of the problem Ashburton Hospital has had an opening for a permanent physician for two and a half years, with not one applicant for the position. The position is currently being filled by a locum.
“Our doctors are getting offered better conditions and bigger salaries across the Tasman and many are choosing that. The Government needs to come into line to reverse this trend.”
Both meetings also voted unanimously to reject the DHBs’ current offer and condemned the DHBs for their failure to negotiate genuinely, he says.
The South Island meetings also concurred with resolutions passed by North Island meetings that patient safety will be seriously compromised unless serious action is taken by the Government and DHBs to rectify the workplace crisis in
The next stopwork meetings will be held tomorrow (Friday July 27), involving senior doctors at the Hawke’s Bay DHB and West Coast DHB.
A second stopwork meeting involving senior doctors from the Canterbury DHB is scheduled for August 2 in
